Second Sight: A Study of Natural and Induced Clairvoyance

by Sepharial

The sensing of time is perhaps the greatest difficulty encountered by the seer, and this factor is often the one that vitiates an otherwise perfect revelation. I have known cartomantes and diviners of all sorts to express their doubt as to the possibility of a correct measure of time. Yet it is a question that follows naturally upon a clear prediction--When?

It is sometimes impossible to determine whether a vision relates to the past, the present, or the future. In most cases, however, the seer has an intuitive sense of the time-relations of a vision which is borne in upon him with the vision itself. It will generally be observed that in ordinary mental operations the time sense is subject to localization, and a distinct throw of the mind will be experienced when speaking of the past and the future. Personally I find the past to be located on my left and the future on my right hand, but others inform me that the habit of mind, places the past behind and the future in front of them, while others again have the past beneath their feet and the future over their heads. It is obviously a habit of mind, and this usually inheres in the visionary state so that a sense of time is found to attach to all visions, though it cannot be relied upon to register on every occasion. But also it is frequently found that there is an automatic allocation of the visions, those that are near of fulfilment being in the foreground of the field, the approximate in the middle ground, and the distant in the background; position answering to time interval. In such case the vision has a certain definition or focus according to the degree of its proximity. These points are, however, best decided by empiricism, and rarely does it happen that the intuitive sense of the seer is at fault when allowed to have play.

The other difficulty to which I have referred, that of interpretation of symbols when forming the substance of the vision, may be dealt with somewhat more fully. Symbolism is a universal language and revelation most frequently is conveyed by means of it. As a preliminary to the study of symbolism the student should read Swedenborg's Hieroglyphical Key to Natural and Spiritual Mysteries, one of the earliest of his works and in a great measure the foundation of his thought and teaching. The Golden Book of Hermes containing the twenty-two Tarots is open to a universal interpretation as may be seen from the works of the Kabalists, and in regard to their individual application may be regarded in a fourfold light, having reference to the spiritual, rational, psychic and physical planes of existence. It is by means of symbols that the spiritual intelligences signal themselves to our minds, and the most exalted vision is, as an expression of intelligence, only intelligible by reason of its symbolism. Something more may be said in regard to the interpretation of symbols which may possibly be of use to those who have made no special study of the subject, and this may conveniently form the material of another chapter.

CHAPTER VII.

SYMBOLISM

Symbols formed the primitive language of the human race, they spoke and wrote in symbols. The hieroglyphic writings of the aborigines of Central America, of the ancient Peruvians, of the Mongolians, and of the ancient Copts and Hebrews all point to the universal use of the ideograph for the purpose of recording and conveying ideas.

If we study the alphabets of the various peoples, we shall find in them clear indications of the physical and social conditions under which they evolved. Thus the Hebrew alphabet carries with it unmistakable evidence of the nomadic and simple life of those "dwellers in tents." The forms of the letters are derived from the shapes of the constellations, of which twelve are zodiacal, six northern and six southern. This implies a superficial intimacy with the heavens such as would result from a life spent in hot countries with little or no superstructure to shut out the view. The wise among them would sit beneath the stars in the cool night air and figure out the language of the heavens.

It was God's message to mankind, and they sought not only to understand it but to make imitation of it. So they built an alphabet of forms after the pattern of things in the heavens. But when we come to the names of these forms or letters we come at once into touch with the life of the people. Thus aleph, an ox; beth, a tent; daleth, a tent-door; lamed, an ox-goad; mem, water; tzadde, a fish-hook; quoph, a coil of rope; gimel, a camel; yod, a hand; oin, an eye; vau, a hook or link; heth, a basket; caph, a head; nun, a fish; phe, a mouth; shin, a tooth; resh, a head; etc., all speaking to us of the ordinary things of a simple, wandering life. These symbols were compounded to form ideographs, as aleph = a, and lamed = l, being the first and last of the zodiacal circle, were employed for the name of the Creator, the reverse of these, la, signifying non-existence, negation, privation. In course of time a language and a literature would be evolved, but from the simple elements of a nomadic life. Knowledge came to them by action and the use of the physical sense. They had no other or more appropriate confession of this than is seen in the root דע yedo--knowledge, compounded of the three symbols yod, daleth, oin--a hand, a door, an eye. The hand is a symbol of action, power, ability; the door, of entering, initiation; the eye, of seeing, vision, evidence, illumination.

Hence the ideograph formed by the collation of these symbols signifies, opening the door to see, i.e. enquiry.